Here is what I know… the longer you wait, the lower the response rate. At two to three months out I would expect a 4 to 6% response rate but wouldn’t’ be surprised if we got a 9 or 10% return.
Why should you survey consumers after an event?
It’s critical to have feedback on the event as soon as the patron walks off the footprint. This is the only way you can spot best practices and opportunities while there is still time to make a difference. If you wait until after the program is over to learn if it worked, you’re setting yourself up to fail.
But this doesn’t mean that it’s not also smart to go back to consumers two, three, or even six months after the event to get feedback. Many of our Clients do a post-event survey to measure any number of items:
- Actual post-event behavior (did you buy, visit, switch, etc.)
- Memory of the event and who sponsored it
- Did you tell friends, share via social media, etc.
Response rate in these post-event surveys has a lot to do with how you position the follow-up and if you let consumers know a post-event survey will come when you collect their email in the first place. Response rate also has everything to do with the level of engagement at the event. We’ve seen it as high as 24% to 30% when it’s a high engagement event.
Final note. We’ve tested a lot of different incentives and have found that the offer for a $50 Amazon gift card is the the best. Sometimes doubling the response rate. Oddly enough, when we test $100 or even $250 incentives with consumers they don’t respond. I think they don’t believe us.
Please feel free to contact us directly if you’d like to talk about post-event surveys for a particular campaign. In the meantime, have a great show.
Photo Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/pennstatelive/4947878648/